The Two Gentlemen of Tampa
by BeeCityz
Summary: "There 's daggers in men's smiles." - AkuRoku, fluff and eventually lemon, implied LexZex. If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. ON HIATUS
1. Chapter 1

"Hey _Roxy_," another anonymous voice said, snickering. The blonde could feel the presence of the body that belonged to the voice behind him, but experience had taught him not to turn around. "Have you had a slushy recently?"

"Not since this morning." Roxas murmured, staring fixedly at his lunch and trying to imagine eating it after it had purple slushy poured on top. He wasn't successful.

"Well, how about-"

"Hey, guys." Ah, he knew that voice. He let himself smile a bit, inclined his head in the direction from which it had come. "Leave him alone, will you?"

"Aww, look Roxy, its your little boyfriend coming to defend you. Isn't that cute?" The ever-so-familiar sound of a plastic lid being popped off of a slushy cup met his ears, and he cringed a little bit. He kind of wanted to eat today. Chicken parmesan was his favorite lunch the cafeteria served, and they only served it about once every two months.

"Aww, that is cute." The familiar voice again, except this time dripping with sarcasm. "You know what's even cuter? Roxy's little boyfriend has an _actual _little boyfriend, who _actually_ works at this school and could get you guys suspended. Isn't that just so adorable?"

There was silence on the other end of the conversation for a bit, and then the satisfying sound of retreating footsteps and angry grumbling. This was quickly followed by an arm around his shoulders, accompanied by a curtain of blue bangs falling in his face.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Roxas looked up at the other's face, making note of the blue eyes that were full of concern and the eyebrows (which didn't match the hair) that were knit together. "I'm fine."

"Really? Because you don't look fine. You look malnourished."

"Zexion," Roxas sighed and turned a bit, then smiled tightly, but patiently. "Tell me, would you want to eat your lunch if it was coated in a thick lair of grape-flavored ice?"

"Its been happening more frequently than usual." Zexion sat down at the circular table and folded his hands, rested his chin on them. "The full moon isn't for another couple of weeks, so I think I'll pull out my telescope tonight and see if the planets are aligning."

"You're such a nerd, it almost makes me nauseous."

"So are you."

"Whatever." Roxas rolled his eyes and picked up his plastic utensils from the table beside his tray, tried vainly to dig into his meal. Whatever this chicken was, it wasn't chicken. Especially considering the gray color of the meat and the fact that it was harder than marble.

"You're welcome."

"Thank you."

Roxas returned to his lunch, poking the very suspicious looking "Jell-O" with his fork, aware of Zexion's eyes boring into him the entire time.

"Are you going to eat that?"

"I haven't decided yet."

Zexion groaned and glanced around the cafeteria. "Demyx was supposed to be here by now."

Roxas shrugged, finally deciding that whatever it was on his plate wasn't Jell-O, but wasn't an alien organism, either, and took a bite. "You know he's notoriously late."

"I'm skipping out on something very important for this meeting, so if he doesn't show up I'm going to be super pissed."

"Something very important as in, sex with Lexaeus in the janitor's closet?" Roxas raised his eyebrows without looking up from his chicken, finally getting a piece off and shoving it in his mouth. Zexion choked a bit, and snorted.

"Please, Roxas. We are so beyond the janitor's closet."

"The supply room?"

"Shut up. I hate you."

Roxas smiled up at Zexion and pointed with his fork, about to open his mouth to say something witty (but hey, let's face it. What comes out of his mouth that _isn't_ witty?) when the third party landed at their table, grinning, red-faced, and panting.

"Hey guys."

"Hi, Demyx." The two chimed in unison, Zexion looking down at his lap and Roxas focusing even harder on his lunch.

"So guess what. I have like, killer news."

"Oh?" Zexion raised his eyebrows and looked up. "What's that?"

"So, Roxas, you probably know the model Axel Russo, right?"

Roxas stopped chewing for a moment to look up at Demyx, eyebrows raised, giving his classic, 'Why would I?' look. Of course, nothing registered at all in the younger blonde's mind, and Roxas shrugged. "No."

"Oh. Okay. Well, he's this model that's _super_ popular right now, right? I mean, he's been in Seventeen and Rolling Stones and everything. Everybody wants him. And guess what."

Matching each other's timing, Roxas and Zexion murmured, "What?"

"He's coming to this school."

That statement bore the beginning of a seemingly endless silence, involving Zexion staring at Demyx in disbelieve, Demyx staring at Roxas like this was the best news the other blonde had ever heard in his entire life, and Roxas trying to cut another piece of his chicken parmesan from the main part, which was proving quite difficult.

"…Well?"

Zexion opened his mouth to answer, but Roxas went first. "Well, what?"

"What do you mean what?" Demyx looked absolutely appalled, glancing from Roxas to Zexion and back to Roxas. "This is huge!"

"Why?" Roxas frowned and took another bite of his "Jell-O." "I don't see how-"

"When's he coming?" Zexion placed his hand on Roxas's shoulder, which pretty much said, 'Stop talking, you'll offend somebody,' and tried to smile as politely as he could. "This is actually very cool news."

"Thank you, _Zexion_." Demyx said, making sure to sneer at Roxas before turning to the bluenette. "He's coming in for registration this afternoon, and should start class on Monday. Everyone's like, freaking out."

"Interesting." Zexion smiled and glanced over at Roxas, who freed another bite of chicken from the mass and placed it delicately on his tongue, chewing thoughtfully. "Don't you think so, Roxas? Pretty good PR for the school, right? We could use it."

"Sure."

"Man, you are like, so bland." Demyx said, snorting. "No wonder all of the jocks pick on you. The only reason they leave Sexion here alone is because he's screwing a teacher, and I don't think anyone knows about me…"

Roxas sighed and took a forkful of corn off the corner of his plate, ate it slowly, swallowed slowly, and tried to give his classmate the most bored expression he could manage. "Demyx, do you want to know what the difference is between all of the poor, humiliated gay teens of the world and me?"

"Sure. Tell me."

Roxas shrugged. "I don't care."

oOo

"Go talk to him."

"No, you go talk to him."

"No, _you_! You're the one who's always so confident."

"But…"

"Go!"

Kairi glanced back at her friends a stepped forward, brushing her coppery-red hair behind her ear and smiling. "Hi Axel."

The redhead glanced up from a few papers that were stuck to a clipboard in front of him, smiled, and held up a hand. "Hey."

Of the five girls behind her, Kairi could be sure that she heard at least three squeal, which could very well mean that the other two had fainted by now. "Do you…uh…do you like Florida so far?"

Axel shrugged. "Its okay. Hot."

"Yeah…" She chuckled and rubbed the back of her neck. "Its September, so I mean…once it gets later in the year, it'll cool down."

"Yeah." Axel glanced up again and smiled. "That's what I've heard."

"Oh?" A light blush heated her cheeks, dusting them pink. "From whom?"

"Um…" He glanced up and scribbled something on the paper, handed it to the older woman behind the desk, and turned fully to face her. "The other five or six girls who've come to talk to me since I walked through those double doors about five minutes ago." He pointed behind him and smiled, a touch of impatience in his expression.

"Oh, right, sorry." She laughed nervously and stepped away, back to the security of her friends. "This is all probably a little overwhelming."

"Just a bit." He smiled and nodded at the woman behind the desk, who groaned and waved him away, going back to her filing or whatever it was she was doing.

"Okay, so, I guess…um…" Kairi smiled a little more broadly than she had initially intended, shrugged. "See you Monday?"

"Yeah." Axel smiled and turned around. "Monday."

oOo

"Rox, you don't have to be so mad about it."

"I'm not mad." Roxas answered, slinging his messenger bag over his shoulder and heading purposefully toward his car, Zexion trailing closely behind him.

"They why are you being weird?"

Roxas stopped and turned toward Zexion, sighing. "All I think is that the last thing this school needs is a self-absorbed, womanizing douche of a celebrity walking around and acting like he's better than everyone else. We already have a football team full of goddamned prima donnas, and one more isn't going to help anyone."

"Yeah." Roxas and Zexion both glanced to their left as the tall redhead walked past them, hands stuffed in the pockets of his jeans, a light hoodie over his shoulders. "God forbid."

Roxas snorted and rolled his eyes, and when the redhead didn't keep walking he raised his eyebrows. "In case you haven't gotten the memo, eavesdropping is rude in pretty much every circle of society."

"Oh, I'm sorry." The redhead held up his hands and stepped forward so that he was standing uncomfortably close to the other two teens, and grinned. "My name's Axel. By all means, continue."

"I don't appreciate you interjecting yourself into our conversation." The blonde said, his polite tone clashing horridly with his narrowed eyes.

Axel snorted. "Man, did someone wake up on the wrong side of the bed today or what?"

"Oh please." Roxas rolled his eyes and turned, heading once again toward his car. Zexion stood at the foot of the staircase leading into the school, watching with amusement as Roxas power-walked to the parking lot and Axel easily kept pace with him. "You don't even know me."

"And from the looks of things, I'm not sure I want to."

"You just proved every argument that I've had about celebrities for the last year." He pulled his keys out of his pocket and clicked one of the buttons, and a few cars away his Volvo chirped and the lights flashed.

"Oh? What argument?"

"That all celebrities are completely self-centered and care about no one but themselves, how things are going to affect them personally, and use other people as they find convenient."

"Well, you're not exactly making a great first impression." Axel leaned against the car next to the small, silver one that Roxas climbed into, hands still stuffed in his pockets. "Are you going to at least tell me your name?"

Roxas snorted and slammed his door shut, locked it, started the car, and cast Axel a look of half hatred and half superiority before pulling out of the parking lot and tearing down the highway. Not five minutes later, the redhead's phone began vibrating in his pocket.

"Yo Lo, what's the dillio?"

The voice on the other line came out a little fuzzy, and Axel had to strain to hear what his agent was saying. "You're not a rapper Axel, and call me by my name, please."

He sighed. "_Larxene_, what's going on?"

"How was registration?"

"It was…" He trailed off and glanced in the general direction in which the other, shorter boy's car had disappeared, smiled. "Its definitely going to be quite an interesting year."

* * *

**A/N: **Hello, everyone! So, in order to commemorate the whole back-to-school thingy, I'm giving you guys a delicious back-to-school fic. 8D

A few things before I start talking about how fail this first chapter was (it feels like it was seriously fail to me) though. First of all, I heard that someone else heard that there's some peeps who're going around and eliminating all of the stories that aren't up to par and/or violate the Terms of Service. I don't know if this is true or not, but anyone else who's heard this, lemme know. Because I think a few of my more popular fics probably violate those darned terms. =3

Secondly, what with school going on and everything, I'm probably not going to be updating this super fast, or super regularly. I also have a contest that I'm participating on (if you're not already signed up, go join) and its for the Academy of Sin (if you're on dA and you're not part of AoS, go join. xD) So I'm probably going to...you know...be somewhat distant.

Um...there was something else, but I can't remember what it was. xD For those of you who actually read the Author's Notes, congratulations. I love you. You're the best people in the world, and if you _are_ one of the few who reads these, I'll...do something for you at some point. xDD Trust me.

~Sara


	2. Chapter 2

"Mister Russo. You're late. Again."

"Um, yeah, sorry." Axel shut the door softly behind him and hurried over to his seat at the edge of the room, dropping his books on the desk, his half empty messenger bag falling off his shoulder and next to the seat.

"Unfortunately, your grades aren't going to be able to support this kind of behavior."

"Yeah." He cleared his throat and sat down, trying not to meet the gaze of the teacher. Mr. Gradley had a reputation as a hard-ass, and the redhead could say with complete certainty that he was living up to that reputation.

"Very well. You can give me your excuse at the end of class. Miss Kaze, if you could catch Mr. Russo up on the notes, that would be much appreciated." He turned back to the board, and Axel breathed a small sigh of relief as he turned to the girl next to him. She looked vaguely familiar, but then again, if you see enough people, everyone starts to look familiar.

She smiled broadly and scooted her seat closer to his, looking very eager. "Hi, Axel."

"Um…" He paused, trying to connect a name with a face. Had they been introduced? He couldn't remember. "Hi?"

"Oh, I never told you my name." She blushed and giggled a bit; a mannerism which he found indescribably annoying. She probably thought he thought it was cute. "I'm Kairi. Kaze."

"Kaze?" He repeated, raising an eyebrow. "That's-"

"No, not _ka-zee, kah-zeh_." She held up a finger and pointed it at him, which was both confusing and a little bothersome (he really hated people invading his personal space.) "That's the one thing I can't stand, is when people mispronounce my last name."

"Noted. So…are there a lot of notes?"

"Um, not really. Just this," She scooted closer and drew a long, painted nail (pink) down the page, turned it, and repeated the gesture. "And that. Do you need me to explain it to you?"

"As much as sixteenth century literature confuses me, I think I can handle it." He didn't mean for his words to come out as sharp as they did, but hey, he was having a tough week. And she was close and speaking to him, so that meant that naturally he would take it out on her. Right?

She backed off a little (because, he noticed, she was now less than six inches away from him) and began to scoot her desk back. "Right. Okay. Well, um, just give them back to me when you're done, 'kay?"

"Sounds good." He took the notes and shoved them in his bag, then glanced up at the front of the room, where Mr. Gradley was lecturing on _The Two Gentlemen of Verona_, which they had started earlier that week. Ah, Shakespeare. Not only a classic writer, but probably one of the most confusing. Ever.

"And, I hope you're taking notes on this, Miss Leazott, when William Shakespeare wrote this play, who do you think it was geared to? Let's look at Romeo and Juliet, briefly, and act one…"

The redhead yawned and scribbled some shit that was spewing out of his teacher's mouth down on his paper, let his eyes slip shut. Home schooling was so much easier than this. Why on Earth had someone decided that he needed to be a normal teenager?

oOo

"Mister DuPont, if you could wait after class for a few moments, that would be much appreciated." Roxas glanced up from neatly packing his books in his backpack to smile at Lexaeus (who by now had heard all about the continued bullying and had already "talked" to him about it) and nod.

Three minutes later, he stood in front of his English teacher's desk, side-by-side with a certain redhead who wasn't exactly educationally motivated and was paid millions of dollars for taking a few good pictures.

He could've seen this one coming from a mile away, but for the sake of…something, he stood his ground, smiling politely, acting like it was just a coincidence that the two were together.

"Now, Mister Russo," Mr. Gradley folded his hands beneath his chin and sighed, his brow furrowing. "I realize that you're a celebrity, and that you're used to having things handed to you-"

"But-"

"But in my class, you're going to work just like the rest of the students have to work. These last two weeks, I haven't seen any improvement in your attitude towards English, or your work ethic, or anything else for that matter. Therefore, I am assigning you a tutor."

It was now that he looked toward Roxas, smiling a little sadly, his eyes apologetic. "Roxas."

The blonde groaned. "Why? Can't Zexion do it?"

"Zexion isn't in this class, for obvious reasons. You're my best student. Please."

The redhead looked from Roxas to his teacher, then back to Roxas. It was obvious that the other boy had no interest in being his tutor (there was some deep-seated grudge that Roxas held against him, and for the life of him he couldn't figure out what it was) and it was obvious that the teacher had no interest in assigning someone else.

"But-"

"I'm sorry, but I'm not going to allow you any wiggle room on this one, despite your friendship with Zexion. I'm doing this for the sake of another student." Lexaeus sighed and turned to Axel. "Now. I want you to listen in particular, young man. I know that Roxas will follow these rules; it's you I'm concerned about."

"A'ight." Axel tried to give the teacher his best 'hood' nod, which turned out very poorly and just ended up with him clearing his throat in embarrassment.

"You two are to meet at least four times a week, for a minimum of one hour. Your first assignment is going to be _Romeo Juliet_. Roxas, you'll come to me once you've finished it and I'll give you the required test to administer to Mr. Russo…questions?" He raised his eyebrows and looked between the two teens, both of whom wore expressions as though they had just been handed a death sentence.

"Wonderful. I'll see you both tomorrow, in class, on time." He added that last part with a pointed look at Axel and nodded affirmatively. "You're dismissed."

oOo

"You know, The Ladies aren't going to be too happy about this."

"Because I care."

"You know that they can make your life hell, don't you?"

Roxas snorted and turned left into the library, _Romeo and Juliet_ tucked safely beneath his arm with his notes, all prepared and translated for the model's simple mind to understand. "What do you think they've been doing for the last three years? I can take it."

"Suit yourself, Captain Anti-Social."

"You're not insulting, so don't try."

"Jeez. Someone's a little cranky. No wonder you don't have any friends." Axel sat himself down at the table across from Roxas, tapping his fingers impatiently in front of him.

"You don't know the first thing about me." Roxas answered, narrowing his eyes up at the redhead and opening his book. "I'm going to tutor you, and that's that."

"Do we have to do it during lunch?"

"Yes."

Axel sighed and slid down in his chair, arms crossed. It so wasn't fair that he was being made to do this. Especially when there were so many lovely ladies at this school who wanted to spend time with him; their adulation had become like crack. And here was this little pill of a teenager, tearing him away from it all for an hour of smartness.

"You know, The Ladies-"

"Okay, let's get one thing straight." Roxas slammed the book shut and shoved it toward Axel, sneering. "Honestly, I couldn't care less about _The Ladies_. For all I care, you can take them in your nice fancy limo and drive off the edge of the proverbial cliff of failure. Of course, you'll probably somehow manage that on your own, what with the drugs and what not that will somehow make its way into your body eventually and whip your brain matter into Jell-O-like mush. So you can shut your disgustingly large mouth, and yes I'm exaggerating a bit, and learn. For the both of us."

Axel sat still in his chair, his mouth hanging open a bit, arms still crossed. "Um…for your information, I don't even know what proverbial means. So since your insult, or at least I think that's what it was, didn't make sense to me, it had no affect."

Roxas stared at him in blank disbelief for a moment before raising his eyebrows. His lips curled into a sort of smile, and that same disbelief was mirrored in a short laugh. "You're so stupid."

"What?" Axel was slightly taken aback by this. Enough so that he sat up and his eyebrows knit together. "I am not."

"You are to."

"Just because I don't necessarily get Shakespeare doesn't mean-"

"You know what?" Roxas sighed and smiled again, this one seeming far more genuine than the first. He reached over and picked up _Romeo and Juliet_ in one hand and held it out to Axel. "You can take Shakespeare, and shove it up your-"

oOo

"His ass?"

"Yes. I am so proud of myself."

"Wow, Roxas. I mean, you hardly curse at your friends, let alone complete strangers. Was being around him really that upsetting?"

"Yes." The blonde laid back on his bed and crossed his ankles, sighing. "And your stupid boyfriend has sentenced me to at least four hours with him a week. I think you should punish that man."

"Oh, gladly." On the other end of the line, Zexion chuckled, and in the background Roxas could hear Lexaeus asking what was so funny. "He deserves it, too. Four hours a week is far too many."

"That's what I'm saying!"

Zexion chuckled again, and Roxas frowned even though the bluenette wasn't there to see it. "Roxas, you need to chill. I mean, don't get me wrong. I know how you are-"

"Aren't you supposed to say you know where I'm coming from?"

"-but don't you think that maybe, just because he's a celebrity, he might not be a terrible guy? You have to stop stereotyping people. He might actually have a good personality, and you'd never know it."

Roxas snorted. "Please. And you say you know me."

"Point taken."

"It should be." Roxas answered snappishly, then sighed and turned his head to the other side of the bed. "Hey Zexion?"

"Hi."

"I miss you."

There was a long pause on the other end, and for a brief moment Roxas thought the other teen had hung up. However, just as his suspicions had reached their maximum level, came an answer. "Roxas, we've-"

"I know. But does that mean I'm not allowed to miss you?"

Another pause. "I guess not."

"You guess." He sighed and sat up, scratched his head. "Okay, well. The season premier of _Glee_ is tonight, and I have to go watch it. Kurt's getting a boyfriend, you know."

"Hey, Rox-"

"Save it. I'll see you at school." Without waiting for a reply, Roxas clicked the 'end call' button on his iPhone, stared at it for a second, and headed downstairs. His parents where down there, mom in the kitchen and dad parked in front of the TV, as usual.

"Hey, sweetie." She said, smiling and lifting the lid off of a pan, flipping something. "Are you okay?"

Simultaneously and without hesitation, the kind of immediate response that came from years of practice, he choked back whatever emotion had started to boil inside him and plastered a smile on his face. "Yeah. I'm fine."

* * *

**A/N: **Okay, so, sorry this update took so long to get out. But school started. So my updates are going to be SO MEGA SLOW.

In English, we've begun _Romeo and Juliet_. Its like. Gaaaaah. I mean, I get it, but did people like...actually used to talk like that? xD Its crazy. And God only knows that like, 400 years from now some super-techy people are going to be unearthing the shit that was posted on the Internet and find my fics and be like, "Did people really used to talk like that?"

Sorry this was such a sucky chapter. I've just been so inept when it comes to my AkuRoku lately. I haven't a clue what's caused it, either. But hey. It'll pass. (I hope.)

Also, I ordered the first Assassin's Creed, because being the insane author that I am I started playing II without playing the first, so that'll probably take away from my writing time a bit as well. But I heard that ACI is waaaay easier than ACII, so I'll probably be done shortly. No worries!

~Sara


	3. Chapter 3

"You're _disgusting_."

"Okay, you know what?" Axel swallowed and ran in tongue along the rim of his mouth, trying to catch any meatball that might still be left there. "You're taking me away from The Ladies, you're forcing me to learn. I am _not_ letting you take away my lunch too."

"That's perfectly understandable." Roxas snapped. "But do you really have to stuff your face like a Neanderthal?"

"I'm sorry if the way I eat offends you, Mister Perfect." The redhead sneered and took another bite of his sub, then a sip of Coke (diet, because he couldn't afford to gain _too_ much weight) and chewed and swallowed.

Roxas just made the most disgusted face that he could manage, watching with some sick fascination as the other boy ate. Really, it was deeply bothersome. Never in his life had anyone looked so barbaric doing something so simple.

"So, anyway." Axel wiped his mouth and glanced up at Roxas, eyebrows raised. "I have this friend-"

"Ooh, shocker."

"Ha. Ha." He sneered again before continuing. "And his name is Demyx."

Roxas didn't bother replying to that statement, as it didn't really matter to him. Naturally, Demyx, the biggest loud-mouth in the school, would befriend Axel, the one person that Roxas probably hated the most.

"So, anyway." Axel shrugged and took another bite of his sub, sip of Coke, chewed, swallowed. "Apparently, Demyx is on better terms with your friend Zexion than he is with you."

No response.

"So, he was telling me the most interesting story the other day about you and Zexion-"

"'_Soft, what light from yonder window breaks?_'"

Axel stopped in the middle of his story, looking at Roxas in confusion. "Urm. What?"

"Tell me who spoke it, and who they were speaking to." Roxas said, narrowing his eyes and crossing his arms. His personal life wasn't really something that he wanted Axel to delve into, and the change of subject, thanks to him, was much welcome.

Axel cleared his throat and started inching his hand toward is notebook. "Um…"

"No notes. It's a famous line. This should be easy."

"Yeah, well, unfortunately for the rest of the population of _Earth_, we can't all bury ourselves in our books like you do." Axel leaned back and glanced at his sub, which was almost gone, and sighed. Shakespeare always ruined his appetite.

"Does that mean you don't know who said it?"

"Guess so."

"It's Romeo. He's in the Capulet's garden, and technically he isn't speak to anyone, because no one knows that he's there at that point. We're just starting Act Two, the balcony scene." Roxas picked up his book and found the page they were on, and slid it over to Axel. "Now, I've been tutoring you for about two weeks now."

"Yeah."

"And we're only on Act Two."

"Oh, I thought that was rather an accomplishment." Axel took the book and scanned over the lines that meant positively nothing to him, then looked up at Roxas. "You can't hold very high standards for me, you know."

"Oh, believe me, I know." Roxas answered, narrowing his eyes once more and nodded curtly. "Anyone with a half a brain would be finished with the play by now, so I think it's probably safe to say that my standards are nice and low for you."

"Okay, Roxas, you know what? I think-"

"I don't care what you think." Roxas said, leaning over and grabbing _No Fear Shakespeare _out of his backpack. "Now, I'm not into random acts of kindness, and I fully expect you to pay me back for this. Not like you can't manage it."

Axel looked at the thin book and took it out of Roxas's hand, eyebrows raised. "Um. What is it?"

"The Sparknotes for _Romeo and Juliet_. If you can read this stuff in plain English, it'll probably move us along quite a bit, and that way we'll both be saved from this endless torture a bit sooner." Roxas crossed his legs and folded his arms, watching Axel expectantly.

"Oh." The redhead flipped through the pages, stopping every once in a while to look at the format. On the left of the page, it had the original Shakespearean, and on the right, the plain English. "Um…thanks?"

Roxas just held out his hand and sneered. "Twenty-five dollars."

oOo

"Oh my God. You have no idea." Roxas shook his head and placed a small forkful of spaghetti in his mouth. "I mean, I didn't think that people could actually be made this stupid. But he…he surprised me, that's for sure."

Naminé laughed and sat in front of her empty plate, then glanced at either of their parents, both of whom were deeply engrossed in Roxas's story. "Rox, don't you think you're being a little hard on him?"

The blonde nearly choked. "Um, no? Hello! Naminé! Come back to planet Earth, please!"

"Okay, okay." She held up her hands in a gesture for Roxas to stop and wore one of her, 'Calm down, I'll prove you wrong' expressions. "May I be excused for a moment?"

"Of course, sweetie." Their mother answered, smiling up at her. Naminé smiled and nodded, the stood up and headed upstairs. Roxas listened as her footsteps went down the hall and into her bedroom, listened and drawers were opened and God-knows-what was tossed onto the floor, as her footsteps returned to the hallway and came back downstairs.

"This." She said.

"That." Roxas answered.

"Is a magazine."

"I am aware."

"And you know what's in this magazine?"

"Gee, I couldn't begin to imagine."

She sneered at him and flipped a few pages, and when she got to the one she wanted, she made a small sound of victory. "Here."

"There."

In unison, both Roxas's mother and father said, "Everywhere!"

The twins looked between their parents with identical expressions of confusion, both shook it off at the same time. "Look." She handed him the magazine, and this time, Roxas _did_ choke.

It was a black and white picture of, yeah, you guessed it, Axel. He was half shirtless (the shirt was unbuttoned and half hanging off on the left side, leaving the right side clinging to the redhead's shoulder for dear life) and was wearing what looked like khakis, and his expression was a plain and simple, 'Yeah, you know you want me. But you know what? You can't have me.'

"Um."

"Isn't he so sexy?" Naminé squealed, stealing the magazine back from her brother and staring at the picture with starry eyes. "I'm so glad he's going to our school. You should be thankful that you get to spend all of this exclusive time with him, Rox. God, if I could just touch-"

"I'm done with dinner." Roxas said quickly, picking up his plate and setting it in the sink. He cleared his throat and tried to get the mental imagine of his sister fondling Axel out of his mind (it was pretty disturbing, and he decided at that moment that if that red haired psycho even looked at his sister, Roxas would have to kill him) and turned to go up the stairs. "It was great. Thanks, mom."

"But Roxas-"

"You know, I'm pretty tired." He subtly grabbed his phone off the side table and shoved it in his back pocket, then let out a long, fake yawn. "I think I'm gonna go to bed for tonight. See everyone in the morning!"

Without waiting for any protest, he turned and ran up the stairs, happy to retreat into his cave.

oOo

"I feel like you're the only one that understands."

"Roxas, you've always felt like I'm the only one that understands."

"That's because you _are_ the only one that understands." Roxas frowned, the word 'understands' echoing in his head and beginning to lose its meaning. "Did you at least talk to Lexaeus about it?"

"He thinks that you need to expand your horizons and go outside of your comfort zone by spending some time with some people that you wouldn't ordinarily spend it with. Who knows? Maybe you'll actually get to like the guy after a while."

"Well, we're going to be done with _Romeo and Juliet_ soon, so-"

"I wouldn't get too happy about that if I were you, Rox." Zexion said, a warning tone in his voice. "Lexaeus is planning on having you tutor him in classic poetry next. Right after you catch him up on _The Two Gentlemen of Verona_, that is."

The blonde paused, his silent disbelief ringing in his ears. "Are you serious?"

"Dead serious."

There was a long pause on Roxas's end of the line, where he just couldn't think of anything to say. Finally, the biggest understatement of the century. "That sucks."

Zexion laughed. "Roxas! You need to start opening yourself up to people. It's a wonder you don't have many friends."

"Zexion-" Roxas groaned.

"I'm serious. You're never going to get anywhere in life if you just push everyone away. I understand that it's how you cope or whatever, but can't you see that you're only hurting yourself more?"

"Whatever." Roxas breathed. "Why don't you go suck face with your new boy toy?"

"Roxas, don't be like that."

Roxas snorted. "Like what? I don't know what you're talking about."

"Roxas."

He stopped and sighed into the phone, staring up at his ceiling. Really, life wasn't fair. It wasn't fair at all. Idly, he raised his wrist over his head and traced his eyes over the fine white scars that resided there. Talk about a constant reminder.

"I'm going to go to bed."

"Rox-"

"No, Zexion." Roxas said. His voice was much softer than it had been only a few seconds ago. It didn't take much effort on the bluenette's part to get him to calm down, and it killed him that this fact had remained true despite the significant passage of time that had kept them apart. "I need…sleep."

Short pause. "Okay. You're not going to do anything stupid, are you?"

Roxas laughed humorlessly. "Please. I stopped doing stupid things two years ago. Now I just do reckless things."

"Roxas…"

"Ooh, say my name some more."

Zexion chuckled, and Roxas imagined him shaking his head. "Okay. Good night."

"Night."

The line went dead, but Roxas held the phone to his ear anyway. He was finding all sorts of patterns in his ceiling, and one of the shapes he saw sort of looked like a puppy. He had a puppy once. Its name had been Cocoa, or something like that.

He slowly pulled his hand away from his ear and placed his phone on his bedside table, then clicked off the light. It was only nine thirty, but hey, no such thing as too much sleep.

He didn't even bother changing into his night clothes before he turned to his pillow and let all of his inner turmoil escape through his eyes.

* * *

**A/N: **Two words. Hell. Yes.

So, I've finally figured out why I can't seem to finish NaNoWriMo. (Like, duh, Sara.) Because I'm not a _novel_ writer, I'm a short story writer. And when you're trying to write a novel, you are painfully reminded of the severed difference between the two.

So, last sentence. I was trying to be kinda poetic here. xD Tell me how it worked out. Yes, Roxas is crying. Believe it or not, the Ice Prince does cry, and he has feelings. Le gasp!

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to update. I've just been suuuuuper busy. It's ridiculous. So, I'll try and update more frequently, because it's far easier for me to write fan fiction than it is a novel. Sigh.

I promise, this isn't a ZexRoku fic. The AkuRoku will come in soon enough. Patience is a virtue.

One more thing for all you awesome people who read my notes. xD When you're writing a pairing, for the love of God, put the seme's name first. I mean, I understand that certain things sound better when you mush the names together (i.e. Kin - kurt/finn) but I mean, if the uke's a uke (kurt) put his name second! (Gives you Finn/Kurt. Much better. ^^)

I just find it frustrating when people put the uke's name first. =3 BLAINE/KURT FTW IF YOU WATCHED GLEE ON TUESDAY YOU'RE AWESOME.

~Sara


	4. Chapter 4

"You can't be serious."

"Roxas. Look around you!" Axel gestured to the horde of girls that was protecting him from all sides but the front, and shrugged. "The Ladies are getting really upset. And I'm getting upset. I don't see what a big deal it is."

"Okay, um." Roxas held up his hand and closed his eyes, paused, opened them again. "Two things. One, it's really, seriously creepy that you refer to this brainwashed group of girls as _The Ladies_. It's so Twilight Zone."

Axel's innocent expression faltered into one of brief confusion before being restored to it's original confidence. "Okay, um, first of all yourself, because the Twilight Zone would _never_-" He stopped and appeared to just notice a few of the girls standing in his peripheral vision, then started again. "…Make any sense whatsoever. You're just trying to say weird stuff to confuse me."

The girls smirked at Roxas, who looked at Axel with the most incredulous expression he could manage. Really, _how_ could functioning members of society be this stupid? "Okay. Whatever. Secondly, I'm not going to take personal time out of my day to make sure that you don't fail. Sorry, but it's not one of those things that really interests me all that much."

"Roxas, come _on_!" Axel groaned, and his eyebrows knit together in frustration. "Why are you being such a pill?"

Behind him, one of the girls muttered, 'How is a person a pill?' and another softly whispered an answer. Roxas watched all of this going on in amazement, and once it was over quickly returned his gaze to Axel, who was watching him expectantly.

"Okay, you know what, Axel? There's no way-"

"Oh, come on, Roxas." Lexaeus muttered from somewhere behind him. Roxas jumped and gave the teacher his best 'how did you get there?' expression, as well as his most confused. "It could be a good idea. Broaden your horizons and all."

Axel 'yes'ed, and Roxas snorted. "Seriously?"

"Yup." Lexaeus walked past him, and as he did said, "New requirement. It's pointless for you two to take time out of your school day for tutoring. Roxas, you can tutor Axel at his house. No less than an hour a day, four days a week. Play nice, boys."

Roxas watched the older man walk away in disbelief, minutely aware of Axel's distinct smirk as he and his Ladies celebrated their victory.

oOo

"Zexion!" Roxas hissed, raising his eyebrows. "He's your boyfriend! Do something!"

"Roxas, I already told you, it's out of my hands." Zexion shrugged in almost indifference and sighed. "I'm sorry. If there was something I could do, I would do it."

Roxas snorted and shoved a bite of Caesar salad in his mouth. "That is so what he said."

Zexion sighed and turned to his own lunch (something cooked up by Lexaeus the night before, shoved into a paper bag and called a meal), trying to ignore Demyx's stares toward their table.

"So…"

"So not in a conversation mood, Zexion." Roxas said, about to have another bite of his salad. However, before it even made it to his fork, his face was shoved roughly down into his meal, soaking his pores with Caesar dressing and doing all kinds of other embarrassing things to him.

A wave of laughter broke out in the cafeteria, and someone screamed, "Faggot!" too far away for Roxas to hit the person to whom the voice belonged in the face.

"Hey, asshole!" Zexion yelled, and Roxas sighed and picked his head up, wiping the dressing off with his napkin and picking the lettuce off of his Polo. "Are you okay?"

Roxas raised his eyebrows without looking at his friend, dabbing a few spots of dressing off of his neck. "Peachy."

The bluenette sighed and glared at the jocks who were sitting across the room from them, eating his mystery lunch angrily. "They piss me off."

"You're not even the one wearing his lunch." Roxas smiled to himself and shrugged. "I've got a change of clothes in my locker anyway. You know, just in case."

"Yeah…" Zexion cast a sad glance over at Roxas, who was still focused on cleaning himself up a bit, and continued eating. "No big."

oOo

"Hey," Axel turned to Kairi, who had been sitting next to him blabbing for the entire period, and pointed at Roxas. "Is that like, the norm?"

Kairi glanced up at him, seemingly surprised that he was actually contributing to the conversation, and followed the direction of his finger. "Oh," She looked like she didn't really know if she was supposed to be pissed or entertained, so instead she just answered, "Yeah."

"Dude…" Axel sighed and his eyebrows knit together. "I don't even like the kid, and that is so not cool. Discrimination is so not cool."

All of the girls chorused phrases of agreement, and Axel looked around them like they were all zombies. Maybe Roxas hadn't been so far off when he called them brainwashed.

"So…is someone going to do something?"

"Um…" All of the girls looked at each other in confusion, and after a few moments of awkward silence, Kairi shrugged. "Well, it's happened, hasn't it? Nothing we can do now. Just…be on the look out, I guess."

"Huh." Was all Axel said, watching from across the room as Roxas's blue-haired friend brooded over his lunch, and Roxas picked at what was left of his salad.

oOo

Okay, really, houses didn't have to be this big. It was almost sickening. First, Roxas had to drive all the way out here (this place was like, forty minutes away from his house) and he had to go through some bullshit security check, and now he was sitting in his crappy little Nissan in front of this building that could fit four of his house inside it.

If Axel was inside, he was probably getting a little creeped out by now. The blonde had been sitting there for…how long? Probably about ten minutes. Not that Axel's personal feelings mattered all that much to him, it would just be kind of weird if he went to ring the doorbell and Axel answered with, 'Why were you watching my house?'

Mustering the small bit of patience that he had been storing up inside, Roxas opened and shut his door, locked the car, and walked up the four million stone steps to the front door.

The doorbell was normal enough. Round. Orange-ish. Hey, what the hell? He pressed it.

"Hold on!" That was definitely Axel's voice, the sound of which was immediately followed by a few loud thuds, the sound of something hitting a wall (probably Axel's overly elongated body) and a few locks turning on the other side of the door.

"What. Are you wearing." The question came out sounding a little more like two statements, but that was okay. The tone didn't really matter when everything boiled down to the fact that Axel was standing in front of him in a pair of reindeer lounge pants and a white tank top.

"What?" The redhead gave himself a once-over and shrugged, pushing the screen door open to let Roxas inside. "It's comfy."

The smaller of the two reluctantly stepped inside the house, which smelled like cinnamon sticks (probably the only thing Roxas actually liked about the place) and sighed. "It's not even Christmas yet. It's barely even Thanksgiving."

"Thanksgiving was four weeks ago, Roxas. Christmas is next Friday."

"Holy crap." Roxas gave him a look of terror and shook his head. "Have you really been wasting that much of my time?"  
"It's been totally awesome hanging out with you, too." Axel rolled his eyes and shut the door, locked the three locks that resided there, and headed to Roxas's right down the narrow front hallway.

"So, the set-up of the house is a little weird because my dad decided he wanted to design it, and he was kind of an angle freak. So, um, we're going to go down here…" Roxas noted that Axel seemed a little uncomfortable showing him around his house, which was mildly satisfying.

"Right." They walked into a large kitchen with nice hardwood floors and all kinds of high-tech cooking equipment, took a sharp right, down three or four stairs, into a very white, very carpeted room with nothing but a fireplace, TV, window, and blanket.

"Um."

"I don't like couches." Axel said, walking over to the blanket and sitting down. "Seriously, I don't know what it is about them, but they seriously piss me off."

"Right." Roxas stood there for a few moments, not really sure what to do. This was way too weird for him. Not only did Lexaeus have to steal his boyfriend, but he stuck him with this couch-hating creep too. What a nice guy.

"Are you going to sit?"

"Um."

"Take off your shoes, please."

"Are you sure you're Axel?" Ah, there it is. That's what had been bothering him.

The redhead blinked as Roxas slipped out of his shoes, placed them on the hardwood stairs leading back up to the kitchen, dropped his messenger bag on the blanket and sat down next to it.

"Yes?"

"You seem a lot less stupid than the other Axel." Roxas narrowed his eyes. "I'm pretty sure Other Axel doesn't care whether or not I wear my shoes, or knows what angles are."

"Well, you know…" Axel trailed off and shrugged, then waited for Roxas to say something, who was waiting for Axel to finish.

"I know?"

"Can I take the test please?"

"_What_?"

"The _Romeo and Juliet_ test." Axel said, holding out his hand and looking awkward. "Can I just take it? I can't handle awkward silences. Especially with you. It's just weird."

Roxas blinked and raised his eyebrows, and actually smiled. "Wow."

"What?"

"Just wow."

oOo

"You won't tell anyone, right? I mean, The Ladies think I'm-"

"Shut up. I'm leaving."

"Roxas, my reputation is at stake!"

The blonde snorted. "I don't give a shit about your reputation. See you tomorrow."

He stepped in his car and didn't look at Axel as he pulled away, a strange feeling bubbling up inside him. Or rather, the lack of strange feelings bubbling up inside him. He actually wasn't…irritated. Which was odd. No stress, nothing. Just satisfaction that this was over. For now.

* * *

**A/N: **This chapter sucks. xD I'm so sorry.

And I'm sorry that it took so long to get up.

Fail notes.

I love you guys.

~Sara


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